‘Agents should adapt the Transaction Fee model’

The Indian travel trade has seen and gone through various phases of evolution. It seems that we agents are now facing one of the most crucial changes to be adopted in the industry i.e. from being an agent to the airlines to being a travel consultant of the customer. It further implies that the agent would not depend on the commission from the airlines but will charge the customer a fee based on the services rendered. This precisely means working on the Transaction Fee model. The charges to the consumer escalate where expertise and level of knowledge of the travel agent or tour operator is high. Hence, travel agents in India, who already give quality service to their clients, will be in a position to demand higher Transaction Fees as the service levels are high and this will increase the profit margins of the travel agent.

It is known that agency commissions moved from a healthy nine per cent to mere five per cent. Worldwide commissions are dropping and the zero commission regime is an inevitable phenomena.